Swaddling of infants has been practiced for thousands of years. Swaddling consists of the wrapping or binding of an infant with a blanket or other swaddling device.
There are several benefits of and reasons to swaddle an infant. Swaddling keeps an infant warm and it allows a caregiver to handle and carry an infant more easily. It is believed that swaddling comforts the infant and allows them to sleep more soundly. The snugness or the swaddle may remind them of the confinement of the womb and provide comfort. Swaddling with the arms bound also helps prevents an infant from waking due to their startle reflex. Pressure across the abdominal and chest area is thought to relieve colic. Swaddling has been used more recently in the calming of older children that may have special needs.
The suggested positioning for an infant to sleep to reduce the risk of SIDS is on their back. Some infants do not tolerate sleeping on their back well unless they are swaddled.
The preferred method of swaddling is to keep the infant's arms at their sides. The problem is that parents are gifted or purchase receiving blankets and swaddle devices that aren't able to keep the infant's arms in the preferred position (at their sides), therefore making their swaddling efforts useless. Once they get their arms up by their chest or mouth, their rooting reflex kicks in and can interrupt their sleep. Older children are much stronger and can break out of a blanket or swaddle easily.
Another problem with not being able to keep the infant's arms at their sides is that they can work loose a blanket or swaddle device and it may migrate over their face causing a risk of suffocation, or strangulation. Also, swaddling can pose a risk to an infant if they are wrapped too tight to inhibit normal breathing.
Although most infants are only swaddled for 3-4 months, some require swaddling well past that age to sleep more soundly. Older babies are stronger and are much harder to keep from breaking out of their swaddle.
Infants in a hospital setting sometimes need their arms immobilized to prevent them from inadvertently pulling out tubes, IV's or disconnecting other medical monitoring devices
An ideal execution of swaddling would provide a way to keep the infant's arms fixed at their sides.
There are several patented swaddling devices in the prior art that have built-in arm restraints to attempt to keep the infant from breaking out of his swaddle. The arm restraints are permanently attached to the swaddle.
Unfortunately, receiving blankets and the current swaddle devices do not properly contain an infant's arms. A mother may have a favorite blanket that she would like to use due to the feel, color, texture of the blanket, it matches the baby's bedding, etc, but a baby can break out of a receiving blanket easily. Those swaddle devices that attempt to contain the infant's arms have arm restraints that are part of the swaddle and the parents wanting to swaddle their infant effectively have limited options in choosing what they wrap their baby in. In addition, the arm restraints are lacking in function. Either they are a pre-formed sleeve or pocket that is extremely difficult to insert an infant's arm through, or they are lacking any fasteners (such as hook and loop) to keep the arm restraint in place and inescapable for a wiggly infant, or they fail to keep the infant's arms in the preferred position, at their sides.
The present invention remedies the defects of known swaddles and receiving blankets by providing an easy to use swaddling accessory that keeps the infant's arms in the preferred position, at their sides, and can be used with any receiving blanket or swaddling device.
If a parent has a receiving blanket or swaddle device that they are particularly fond of, the present invention allows them to swaddle their infant in that blanket or swaddle properly and effectively.
The relevant prior art includes the following references:
Pat. No.InventorIssue/Publication Date7,587,769McDermottSep. 15, 20097,181,789GattenFeb. 27, 20077,043,783GattenMay 16, 20066,868,566GattenMar. 22, 20056,393,612Thach et al.May 28, 20025,129,406Magnusen et al.Jul. 14, 1992